AN EGG FULL OF TOMATOES!

I've always wanted to try this...

---

Finally, now that @mama-pepper wanted to try it, I got it done! It's amazing how the encouragement of a wife can suddenly be enough to get things done!

EGGS SHELLS, REALLY?

Here on the homestead, we are always trying to improve things and make use of all that we can. Time and time again things that may otherwise be discarded have found excellent uses and we try to never stop learning. One of the main things about growing your own food is soil. It's more than just dirt, but is instead a living medium full of life, nutrients, potential, and other things. We constantly try to improve the soil that our crops will be growing in naturally, and this is one way that we hope to accomplish that.

One of the key things that egg shells bring to the table is Calcium. Plants like tomatoes need Calcium for healthy growth and a common problem that tomato growers can face is "blossom end rot" if there is not enough Calcium available in the soil. In the photo above you can see my favorite sprouting method for various seeds, in which the seeds are placed into a moist paper towel to germinate. When planting using a method such as this, starting with sprouted seeds like this can help!

At breakfast we prepared some eggshells to be used as seedling "pots" by only cracking open one end of them. We still get to enjoy the yolks and whites for breakfast but now the shell can be used for our gardening efforts.

Then the empty eggshells can be filled with moist soil, made up of whatever seedling mix you would normally use. Though holes could be poked or drilled into the bottom of the eggshell for drainage, we just try to monitor the moisture level inside the egg. Obviously, if it became too dry or too wet, our poor little seedling would die, so this is important.

Even eggs that were cracked more "in half" can still work for this project. The goal is to simply use these eggshells as a temporary home for the seedlings until they can be "released" into the garden. Then, at the time of planting outdoors, the eggshell "pot" is gently squeezed to break it into pieces so that the roots of the tomato can grow through it into the soil. Crushed eggshells is a common soil amendment to help add Calcium anyway, and this is just one creative and fun way of doing a little more of that.

These are the "just started" tomato seedlings in their temporary eggshell homes. We've started some Yellow Pear, Beefsteak, and Chocolate Cherry tomatoes so far, but hope to add some others. On the bright side, even if you try this method and fail, the eggshells can still get added to the soil, so it may be worth the attempt. We are glad that we finally gave it a try! I'll let you know how these work out!

As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:

proof-of-planting-tomatoes-in-eggs

Until next time…

GIF provided by @anzirpasai

---

FOR MORE PAPA-PEPPER CONTENT, CHECK ME OUT ON SOLA

---

TO TRANSLATE POSTS VIA OPERATION TRANSLATION CLICK HERE